Photo by Alex Prewitt

The Rangers come to town fresh off a 2-1 win over the Islanders last night. The Rangers are one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference. They currently sit second in the Metro, one point behind the Islanders and seven points ahead of the fourth place Caps. If the Caps hope to go far this Spring, they’ll likely have to go through the Blueshirts. Expect a playoff-like atmosphere at Verizon Center tonight.

Puck drop is at 8pm on NBCSN.

Projected Lineup

Lines are TBD due to some injuries. Here’s what they were at the morning skate, per Alex Prewitt:

Ovechkin-Latta-Johansson

Glencross-Beagle-Brouwer

Chimera-Fehr-Ward

Laich-Kuznetsov-Wilson

Latta and Beagle spent the morning skate centering the Caps’ top two lines. What a time to be alive. Nicklas Backstrom, who is sick, did not skate this morning.

Schmidt-Carlson

Alzner-Niskanen

Gleason-Green

Holtby

A lot of moving parts here with three two Caps’ players listed as game-time decisions. More on this below.

Best Thing on the Internet Today

The world is a wonderful place, full of wonderful people.

Storylines

• This is Adam Vingan’s last game on the Caps’ beat. Adam is leaving us to cover the Predators for The Tennessean. Here’s his final NHL.com Caps’ feature, highlighting the “heavy” game played by the guys in red.
• I’ll miss Adam’s puns on Twitter. I’ll miss his down-to-earth and accessible personality that came through in the way he covered the team and interacted with all of us in person and on the internet. Leave your favorite Adam Vingan story or tweet in the comments.
• Mike Green took the morning skate today. But, according to Mike Green, Mike Green is out tonight. He’s day-to-day with an upper body injury.
• Brooks Orpik (lower-body) and Nick Backstrom (sick) are both game-time decisions, although Barry Trotz expects Backstrom to play.
• As a result of the injuries on the blue line, the Schmidtuation has changed and Cameron Schilling has been recalled. These are both emergency recalls, so they don’t count against the four post-deadline recalls each team is allotted. Look for the Caps to make an emergency recall for a forward if Backstrom and Michael Latta both can’t go tonight.
• The Caps have struggled out of the gate recently.
• You probably won’t see these lines for the Caps tonight, but they sure seem to be worth a look.

Have You RSVP’d for #RMNBPartyGr8?

We’re a week and change out. 88 people have already RSVP’d. You should too.

Good Music

Apropos of nothing, here’s Chapel Song, by one of my favorite bands, Augustines.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Rangers